Examinative

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Of, pertaining to, or designed for the purpose of examining or testing something carefully
2. Concerned with or used for the act of inspecting, questioning, or assessing through examination
3. Serving to look into or probe the nature, quality, or validity of something thoroughly

Etymology: "Examine" began as a weighing term. Its Latin ancestor, "examen", meant the tongue or pointer of a balance, the needle that showed whether the two pans were level. Testing a load on a scale gave the word its sense of closely testing anything. "Examinative" adds the suffix "-ative" to "examine". That suffix, which comes through Old French from Latin "-ativus", turns a verb into an adjective meaning relating to or tending toward the action, as in "talkative" or "informative". So the word describes what is connected with examining.

Synonyms: analytical, investigative, examining